Talent management

Retaining your Top Talent
Clement Wiredu
Director, Ghana Institute of Consulting
STARLIFE HR FORUM 2014
1 STARLIFE HR FORUM OCTOBER,2014

Introduction - The GIC
 The Ghana Institute of Consulting (GIC) is
established as a subsidiary of
ShawbellConsulting Limited. The GIC rides on
the strong reputation of the firm of
ShawbellConsulting as being a foremost provider
of high quality consultancy services in Ghana
since 2002.
 The Institute is set up to provide training services
in professional practices in support of better
business performance in Ghana.

The Ghana Institute of Consulting?
 It is also to provide an opportunity to ‘raw’
graduates, many of whom are unemployed, and
also to technical professionals to obtain a
practicing skill which can be utilized anywhere
and in any domain.
 Consulting is our firm’s claim to fame,
consequently we concentrate on Consulting
Skills, in the first instance.

The Ghana Institute of Consulting
 With time, we have also incorporated other
training courses and programmes:
 Junior Executive Certificate Programme (JECP);
 the Stellar Graduate professional Programme
(SGPP);
 The Skills Resource Network; and
 The Skills Bank.

Successful Business Strategy?
 Today’s CEOs and executives maintain
that there are three key components to a
successful business:
You have the right strategy;
You have the right operations in
place to execute that strategy; and
You have the best people in the
world to execute those operations.

Who is an “A” Player (Top Talent/Best
People)
 A is for ability.
 A Players are Winners, Smart, Savvy and Get
the job done.
 A Players have a nose for goal line, and they go
for it. Only hire A Player or people with A
potential.
 A Players cost you more, but they deliver more.
 A players have lots of energy, more fast,
innovative,
 A players need to be challenged.
(You can be move B players to B+. Groom A-
player to an A, B+ into an A.)

How does your company keep your
top talent?
Successful
companies
know how to
lessen
employee
turnover by
knowing what
makes their
high
performers
fulfilled in
their jobs and
then working
even harder to
make sure
those needs
are being met.
 A recent survey conducted by
Accenture, a $10 billion global
management and technology
organization, indicates that businesses
can greatly improve retention rates
and employee performance by making
it easier for workers to find new
opportunities in an organization and
developing the skills and knowledge of
all your employees, regardless of their
position in your company.
 Top Talents leave an organization
when they’re badly managed and the
organization is confusing and
uninspiring.7 STARLIFE HR FORUM OCTOBER,2014

How does your company keep
your top talent?
 Identify exactly what brings your employees career
fulfilment.
 Encourage them to focus more on what’s right with
their jobs, than what’s wrong.
 Train them — consider offering skills training or
continuous learning as an incentive to stay.
 Pay them what they are worth by offering salary
increases based on performance.
 Besides money, offer incentives, fringe benefits or
Quality Life Programs ,whenever possible ,such as
family leave, flexible hours and telecommuting options
or rent advances, vehicle leasing options, etc.

Retaining our top talents
 Give constant praise — It sounds extremely simple but,
with reduced staff, increased workload and compressed
time schedules, it is easy to forget compliments. People
need to know that their efforts for the company are
recognized and appreciated. After all, you can’t be proud of
yourself until somebody’s been proud of you.
 Improve your employees’ overall relationship with their job
and daily responsibilities by increasing responsibility,
involvement in decision-making and opportunities to make
a difference.
 Provide clear career paths: identify opportunities for people
to shine. Explain what’s required for your employees to
move forward in the organization based on the company’s
or department’s plans for the next one, three and five
years.

Why we lose our Top Talents
Big company
Bureaucracy
No projects to
ignite passion
Poor Annual
Performance Reviews
often rushed through
APR sessions, no full
discussions with
employees
No discussion
around career
development
Strategic Priorities: Top
Talent hates to be “
jerked around”, Give
them opportunities to
deliver what they have
promised.
Lack of open-
mindedness

SUMMARY OF CRITICAL COMPETENCIES
Overall Talent “A” Player “B” Player “C“ Player
Vision Facilitates the creation
and communication of
a compelling and
strategically sound
vision.
Vision lacks credibility
is somewhat
unrealistic or
strategically flawed.
Embraces tradition
over forward thinking.
Intelligence BO or higher IQ, a
“quick study” who can
rapidly perform
complex analyses
120-29 IQ; smart, but
not as insightful as an
A player.
119 IQ or lower; has
difficulty
understanding and
coping with new,
complex situations.
Leadership Initiates needed
change; highly
adaptive and able to
inspire the
organization to change
Favours modest,
incremental change, so
there is lukewarm
“followership.”
Prefers status quo;
lacks credibility, so
people are hesitant to
follow; give
inconsistent direction
Passion Extremely high energy
level; fast paced;
55(+)-hour work weeks
Motivated; energetic
at times; 50-54-hour
work weeks
Dedicated;
inconsistent pace; 40-
49-hour work weeks

SUMMARY OF CRITICAL COMPETENCIES
OVERALL TALENT “A” PLAYER “B” PLAYER “C” PLAYER
Resourcefulness Impressive ability to find
ways over, under, around,
and through barrier;
invents and paradigms
Open-mined, occasionally
finds a solution
Defeated by obstacles
Customer focus Extremely sensitive and
adaptive to both stated
and unstated customer
needs
Know that “customer is
king” but does not add-on
it as often as A players
Too inwardly focused;
misjudges the inelasticity
of demand for the firm’s
products and services
Coaching Successfully counsels,
mentors, and teaches
each team member to
turbo-boost performance
and personnel, career
growth
Performs annual
performance reviews and
gives some additional
feedback; is ‘spotty’
inconsistent in coaching
Is inaccessible,
hypercritical, stingy with
praise, and late/shallow
with feedback; avoids
career discussions
Team building Creates focused
collaborations, results-
driven teams; energizes
others
May want teamwork but
does not make it happen
Drains energy from
others; actions prevent
synergy

Competencies A, B, C Talents
Track Record Exceeds
expectations
of employees,
customers
and
shareholders
Meets key
constituency
expectations
Sporadically
meets
expectations
Integrity Iron clad Generally
honest
Bends the
rules
Oral Written
Comm.
Excellent Average Mediocre

Coaching and Talent
Management
Coaching is a
one-to-one
dialogue in
which the
coach helps a
person
understand
his strengths
and weak
points and
bold
commitment
to improve
performance.
Coaching
helps unlock
someone’s
potential.
STARLIFE HR FORUM OCTOBER,201414
Definition

COACHING AND A PLAYER MANAGEMENT
Counselling – to help someone
improve self-awareness and
change points of view
Mentoring – sharing sage
advice to help someone
become savvier in matters of
organisational culture,
networking and career planning
Mentoring – sharing sage
advice to help someone
become savvier in matters of
organisational culture,
networking and career planning
Confronting – addressing non-
performance to help someone
either achieve performance
goals or accept the necessity of
redeployed
Coaching has
four key
components:

COACHING DEFICIENCIES IN MANAGEMENT
Inaccessible to
me
More results-
oriented than
people –oriented
Too important to
coach
Hypercritical
Stingy with
praise
Unconcerned
with my career
development
Poor at listening
Late and/or
shallow in
performance
reviews

CHARACTERISTICS OF A
SUPERCOACH
A partner Interested, engaged,
respectful and respected
Promotes autonomy. Helps the
coach to independently diagnose
problems and consider solutions,
makes informed choices
regarding development.
Positive Supportive, builds
confidence, is an enthusiastic
motivator. Use praise and recognition
for progress and accomplishment.
Never ridicules. Is passionate. Has a
sense of humour.
Trustworthy Is honest
and open. Maintains
confidence. Admits
when wrong. Doesn’t
overpromise.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A
SUPERCOACH
Patient Understands how
hard it is to change. Is
tolerant and reasonable.
Results-oriented Focuses only on
important issues. Is proactive and
infectiously committed to helping
coachee perform. Follows through
on promises.
Perceptive Understands
coaches strengths,
shortcomings, goals and needs.
Authoritative Is knowledgeable and
wise. Is clear and specific in feedback.
Has common sense. Generates valid
measures of improvement.

Conclusions
 Manage local top talents in your organisations for
them to reach global standards
 Identify your Generation Y team and manage
them.
 Indigenous firms should strive to make top talents
become partners or have equity in the
organization.
 Kill the idea that your top talents find satisfaction
in international firms.
 Build your top talents into becoming Consultants

Conclusions
 Let your top talents think locally but have an
international appeal.
 Nurture talented people with an international
mindset, who understand local ways of doing
business.

Takeaway?
 “ I believe the real difference between success
and failure in a corporation can be very often
traced to the question of how well the
organization brings out the great energies and
talents of its people”
Thomas. J. Watson, Jr.
A Business and its Beliefs (1963)

Contributions and Questions?
Thank You

Talent management

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